Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Robotics Activities–Is the Investment Worthwhile?

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Informatics in Schools. Curricula, Competences, and Competitions (ISSEP 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9378))

Abstract

Young people are deterred from studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by the perception that such studies are boring and by a lack of self-efficacy. One approach towards increasing engagement with STEM is through the use of robotics in education, both in formal instruction and through informal activities such as competitions. There is a consensus that such activities are “fun” but there is almost no research on whether there is any educational advantage to robotics activities. We are investigating the extent to which participation in robotics education activities influence the attitudes of students towards STEM and their intentions concerning STEM studies in the future. The research framework and methodology is the theory of planned behavior (TPB), which claims that attitudes engender intentions, which in turn cause behavior. TPB is based upon questionnaires that are constructed based upon observations and interviews. The analysis of the answers from 106 questionnaires showed that the attitudes and the subjective norms were not as high as we expected, but the results for the subjective norms are of particular importance, because they show that students can be motivated by the respect and support they receive from their teachers and parents. The scores for the intentions predictor were very high, which implies that the students are like to choose to study STEM in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. ACM: Journal of Educational Resources in Computing 3(4) (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  2. ACM: Journal of Educational Resources in Computing 4(3) (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Adams, J.C.: Alice, middle schoolers & the imaginary worlds camps. SIGCSE Bulletin 39(1), 307–311 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ajzen, I., Madden, T.: Prediction of goal-directed behavior: Attitudes, intentions, and perceived behavioral control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 22, 453–474 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ajzen, I.: Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 32(4), 665–683 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Anderson, M., McKenzie, A., Wellman, B., Brown, M., Vrbsky, S.: Affecting attitudes in first-year computer science using syntax free robotics programming. ACM Inroads 2(3), 51–57 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Apiola, M., Lattu, M., Pasanen, T.: Creativity and intrinsic motivation in computer science education: experimenting with robots. In: 15th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2010), pp. 199–203 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Armoni, M., Meerbaum-Salant, O., Ben-Ari, M.: From Scratch to “real” programming. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 14(4), article 25 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Aspray, W., Mayadas, F., Vardi, M.Y. (eds.): Globalization and Offshoring of Software: A Report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force. ACM (2006), http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport/ (last accessed on March 10, 2015)

  10. Ben-Bassat, L.R., Ben-Ari, M.: Adapting and merging methodologies in doctoral research. Computer Science Education 19(2), 51–67 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Carter, L.: Why students with an apparent aptitude for computer science don’t choose to major in computer science. SIGCSE Bulletin 38(1), 27–31 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Druin, A., Hendler, J. (eds.): Robots for Kids: Exploring New Technologies for Learning. Morgan Kaufmann (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gibbons, S.J., Hirsh, L.S., Kimmel, H., Rockland, R., Bloom, J.: Middle school students attitudes to knowledge about engineering. In: International Conference on Engineering Education, pp. 1–6 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kelleher, C.: Motivating Programming: Using Storytelling to Make Computer Programming Attractive to More Middle School Girls. Ph.D. dissertation, Carnegie Mellon University (2006), http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~caitlin/kelleherThesis_CSD.pdf (last accessed on March 10, 2015)

  15. Kelleher, C., Pausch, R.: Lowering the barriers to programming: A taxonomy of programming environments and languages for novice programmers. ACM Computing Surveys 37(2), 83–137 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kumar, D.: Learning Computing with Robotics (2011), http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dkumar/Myro/Text/Fall2011PS2/PDF/LCR2011.pdf (last accessed on March 10, 2015)

  17. Margolis, J., Fisher, A.: Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. MIT Press (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Markham, S., King, K.: Experiences, outcomes, and attitudinal influences. In: 15th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2010), pp. 204–208 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  19. McGill, M.: Learning to program with personal robots: Influences on student motivation. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 12(1), article 4 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Meerbaum-Salant, O., Armoni, M., Ben-Ari, M.: Learning computer science concepts with Scratch. Computer Science Education 23(3), 239–264 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Taub, R., Ben-Ari, M., Armoni, M.: The effect of CS Unplugged on middle-school students views of CS. In: 14th Annual ACM SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2009), pp. 99–103 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Verner, I., Ahlgren, D.: Robot contest as a laboratory for experiential engineering education. ACM Journal on Educational Resources in Computing 4(2), 2–28 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Zur Barguri, I.: A new curriculum for junior-high in computer science. In: 17th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2012), pp. 204–208 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science Teaching, Weizmann Insitute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy & Mordechai (Moti) Ben-Ari

Authors
  1. Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mordechai (Moti) Ben-Ari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Science, Univ. of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer & Information, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Andrej Brodnik

  2. Institut für Informatik, WWU Münster, Münster, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Jan Vahrenhold

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Levy, R.BB., Ben-Ari, M.(. (2015). Robotics Activities–Is the Investment Worthwhile?. In: Brodnik, A., Vahrenhold, J. (eds) Informatics in Schools. Curricula, Competences, and Competitions. ISSEP 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9378. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25396-1_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25396-1_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25395-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25396-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation